Free Republic

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)A documentary filmmaker who spent time with the Free Syrian Army said that moderate rebels are “laughing” at President Obama’s plan to arm them against the Islamic State, claiming they simply “don’t take this seriously.” Matthew VanDyke, an American filmmaker and a friend of executed journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, spoke with Fox News’s Shepard Smith about the White House’s plan to arm and train thousands of rebels affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, a more moderate rebel group that’s friendly with the West, in order to encourage them to fight the Islamic State. VanDyke warned that removing the...

The U.S. told Iran of its plans to strike ISIS militants inside Syria in order to reassure them that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would not be targetted, a senior Iranian official has claimed. The communication, confirmed in part by a senior U.S. State Department official, appears to signal a cooling in hostilities between the U.S. and Iran for the first time since a 1979 hostage crisis prompted Washington to sever ties with Tehran. Iran is said to have voiced concerns for the safety of Assad, who remains the Shia Islam-dominated nation's closest regional ally and the recipient of Iranian military...

<p>REYHANLI, Turkey — Anti-government media activists and rebel commanders gave a mixed assessment of U.S.-led airstrikes in northern Syria on Tuesday, saying that some of the Islamic State encampments hit had been evacuated and one building that was struck had been filled with displaced civilians, even as at least one major Islamic State base was seriously damaged and many fighters were killed.</p>

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian President Bashar Assad said Tuesday he supports any international effort against terrorism, apparently trying to position his government on the side of the U.S.-led coalition conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State group. Damascus said the U.S. informed it beforehand that the strikes were coming.SnipThe United States has ruled out any coordination with Assad's government.

“For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside,” Barack Obama said in a written statement in August, 2011. The statement came following reports that indicated Syria’s Bashar al-Assad was involved in a bloody crackdown on protesters who rose up amid the Arab Spring revolutions. Two years later, Obama was marshalling support for air strikes against forces loyal to Assad. Though the administration had ruled out “regime change” through military force, toppling Assad was the goal nevertheless. The United States was responding to the clear evidence that Damascus had used chemical...

"But, may I add, the training also will service these troops in the same struggle that they've been in since the beginning of this conflict against the Assad regime"

(CNN) -- [Breaking news update 6:44 a.m. ET] The Khorasan Group, which the U.S. military struck overnight in Syria, was actively plotting against a U.S. homeland target and Western targets, a senior U.S. official said Tuesday. The threat was "imminent," the source said. The U.S. military also struck ISIS targets in Syria. The United States "had very good information" about the threat from the Khorasan Group, the source said. The U.S. strikes against the group were planned in advance, not at the last minute, the official said. Khorasan operatives were coming closer to the "end of their planning," the official...

Abe Lincoln once said, “How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” In order to avoid actually doing something about ISIS a terrorist group whose goals he probably endorses, Barack Obama has enlisted John Boehner in calling the Free Syrian Army (FSA) moderates. They are no more moderates than a dog’s tail is a leg regardless of what they are called in Washington. People on the ground, those who are not constrained by cowardice, have a different view of the FSA. The “Friends...

Russia on Tuesday accused the West of ignoring its warnings about the growing terrorist threat in Syria, and claimed that the moderate rebel front – the one the Obama administration wants to arm as part of its anti-ISIS strategy – “no longer exists.”The remarks by Russia’s ambassador in Geneva Alexey Borodavkin came during a session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which was discussing the most recent report by a U.N.-mandated independent commission of inquiry into the conflict.The report, released late last month and roughly covering the first half of this year, recorded atrocities by the Assad regime and by...

I hope people are watching this. Such insanity would typically end in someone being ejected from the party John McCain, the hideous terrorist aider DEMANDING the US military attack Assad's regime in Syria and send heavy weapons to the 'moderate' opposition, also known as mega extremists just like those guys in Libya we gave stinger missiles to. Another reason to NOT let McConnell back in the senate. He will continue to send the most unstable man in the country to this vital committee. STOP ARMING TERRORISTS WHO HATE AMERICA!

He made clear the intricacy of the situation, though, as he contemplated the possibility that Mr. Assad might order his forces to fire at American planes entering Syrian airspace. If he dared to do that, Mr. Obama said he would order American forces to wipe out Syria’s air defense system, which he noted would be easier than striking ISIS because its locations are better known. He went on to say that such an action by Mr. Assad would lead to his overthrow, according to one account.

President Barack Obama would seek to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad if American planes were attacked upon entering Syrian air space, Peter Baker of The New York Times reports. If Assad's troops fired at American planes entering Syrian airspace, "Obama said he would order American forces to wipe out Syria’s air defense system," Baker reports. "He went on to say that such an action by Mr. Assad would lead to his overthrow, according to one account."

US President Barack Obama surprised his visitors, the delegation of Eastern Christians patriarchs, on Thursday when he told them that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "protected the Christians in Syria." Obama met with the delegation in the White House for 35 minutes, during which the patriarchs presented a paper in which they exposed the situation of Christians in the Middle East and the threats and challenges they are facing, due in part to the expansion of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group. Sources told Al-Akhbar that the highlight of the meeting was when Obama said the following...

Israeli medics were checking last week a 12-year-old Syrian boy who was brought to Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat (Safed), northern Israel. The hospital said that the boy was severely wounded, losing the sight in both eyes and suffering injuries to his arm and leg, when a shell exploded near his home in the outskirts of Damascus. After undergoing basic medical treatment in Lebanon, his brother took him by donkey across the border to an Israeli military post, where soldiers took him to hospital in Safed. The spokesperson said the boy was one of ten Syrians currently being treated at...

Since the United States started getting serious about military action against ISIS, politicians and policymakers have worried that such an initiative would play into the hands of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In his speech last night, President Obama was careful to stress that strikes against the group would not in any way imply that the United States was allied with the Syrian government. “In the fight against ISIL, we cannot rely on an Assad regime that terrorizes its own people—a regime that will never regain the legitimacy it has lost,” the president said. Instead, he said, Washington would step up...

The video which follows this article was published on social media by members of the terrorist organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, includes threats to attack Russian President Vladimir Putin and liberate Chechnya and the Caucus Region with Russian fighter jets and missiles ISIS had seized from Tabaqa Airport in Raqqa, Syria as reported by IraqiNews.com on 27 August. Vladimir Putin, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is a principal supplier of weapons and equipment for Syrian government forces. A member of ISIS directs his words to Putin, “these Russian planes which you had sent to Bashar,...

The Israeli Air Force downed an unmanned drone (UAV) over the Golan Heights as it attempted to enter Israeli airspace from Syria. Forces fired a surface-to-air Patriot missile at the drone, which came from the area of Quneitra - which has seen fierce clashes between Syrian rebels and regime forces. The Israel Defense Forces told the Associated Press that the drone appeared to have belonged to the Syrian military and had flown accidentally into Israeli airspace. The IDF said that the drone was identified in Israel's air space and shot down by a ground-to-air Patriot missile. The IDF "will respond...

The British government has said that it won't work with President Bashar al-Assad in order to destroy the Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq.This is in response to the comments of the former head of the British Army, Lord Dannatt (along with former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind), who recently advised some kind of alliance with Assad. And, as a military man, I suppose that Lord Dannatt may know what he's talking about. Nonetheless, since these suggestions seem to have arisen specifically in response to the beheading of the U.S. journalist James Foley, they may simply be knee-jerk reactions....

The latest genius to come up with this particular plan is Pat Buchanan. It’s not unique, but it’s a refreshing change from all the proposals that we ally with Iran to stop ISIS. Alternative proposals that we ally with Frankenstein, Dracula and the Mummy to stop ISIS are on the table. Here’s why it’s stupid 1. Assad is getting his ass kicked by ISIS and most of the other rebel groups. In other words what is the point of this alliance exactly? We’re already allied with an Iranian client in Baghdad that’s incapable of fighting its own battles and is...

If a retired tyrant chose to write a guidebook entitled “How to be an Arab Dictator”, what would be the most important lesson? It might be summarised thus: “When you are in trouble, fan the flames of Islamist extremism so that your enemies will look even worse than you.” This time-honoured trick can work wonders for the beleaguered autocrat. If he pulls it off, some venerable figures in the West might even argue that he is just the man to quell the very conflagration that he helped to ignite. So it is with Bashar al-Assad, the chief arsonist of Syria,...